How to Make The Most of Your Backyard

Posted on Posted in Residential
How to Make The Most of Your Backyard

One of the best parts about living in Austin is that you can spend time outdoors year round. It’s a lot of fun to go paddle boarding on the river or go for a hike on the Greenbelt, but sometimes the best place to hang out is at home. Investing a little work in your backyard will go a long way for making your home your favorite place to be: somewhere you can relax, entertain friends, and play with the kids.

Here are some tips to make the most out of your space and maximize your Austin home’s backyard. All it takes is some creativity, organization, and a little bit of elbow grease.

Keep It Tidy

The first step to your backyard makeover is to give it a good once-over and start clearing out anything you don’t use or that has seen better days. Throw out any worn out patio furniture and old kids’ toys. Mow the lawn, take out the trash, and spend some time with the weed trimmer. Once that’s done, it’s time to get busy with simple, but transformative DIY projects. These storage solutions will help you organize your yard and make it easier to keep it neat.

  1. Rake tool holder: Do you have a broken rake lying around, or maybe a spare? Take the rake part off of the handle, and hang it up on a nail in your garage or outdoor shed. You’ll be able to hang all of your gardening tools from the rake’s prongs.
  2. Hose holder: Long, tangled hoses make your yard look cluttered. All you need to keep the garden hose tidy is a galvanized bucket. Either attach it to a wall, on its side, or get a larger bucket to keep on the ground near the spigot so it will be easy to return to its proper place.

Keep It Trendy

Do you love to host? The easiest way to get your friends to come over is to create a great space where everyone wants to hang out.

  1. Outdoor living room: Give everyone something to gather around by making a sturdy, simple table. Once again, galvanized buckets are your best friend. A large one makes a great base for a table. All you need is a circular piece of wood to lay over the top, and you’ll have a cute table to tell stories over and eat some BBQ on. With some chairs around your new table and a string of outdoor lights, your friends will love hanging out in your backyard.
  2. Create multiple areas: Breaking up your backyard into smaller designated areas will actually make it seem bigger. Plant a garden separate from your outdoor living room and create a different space for games for adults (cornhole anyone?) or for the kids.

Keep It Fun for Kids

Speaking of kids, an easy way to motivate them to be active is to create a great space for them to explore, build, and play in.

  1. Sand (or dirt!) box:  Sandboxes are classic and fun. Pails are all they need to enjoy making sand castles and playing for hours. But, dirt could also be fun! With some earth-moving trucks, they can build mountains on Mars or make mud. Line either of these playscapes with rocks from the landscaping department of a home improvement store to keep the area contained.
  2. Outdoor stage: If your kids love to dress up and put on shows, make them super happy by building them a stage in your backyard. All you need is red curtains from a fabric store, a rope, and a tree to hang it from, and voilà! You’ve got a stage for the cutest plays ever.

Keep It Clean

Once you’ve got your perfect backyard, you need to keep it clean to ensure you’ll want to continue to spend time in it.

  1. Hand washing station: This is a super simple idea, yet it makes a world of difference. Hang a steel pail from an outdoor faucet, and that’s it! Your new outdoor sink will keep the kids from bringing the sand or dirt inside and help you wash off after gardening.
  2. Pressure wash your backyard: The easiest, fastest way to revitalize your backyard is to pressure wash it. In one go, your entire backyard will be transformed, and become a place you can enjoy spending time, no matter the activity!

    Our Austin team of pressure washing pros are here to handle this for you. With our experience and top of the line equipment, all of your outdoor surfaces can be made to look new again with just one cleaning. Click here to get a free estimate for your backyard.